In a tragic incident, an 8-year-old boy choked to death after swallowing a pen cap at his school in Andhra Pradesh's Nellore district on Thursday.

Class 3 student B. Naga Vinay was copying a lesson written on the blackboard in his notebook when he accidentally ingested the pen cap he had put in his mouth and was chewing.

As he began choking, his classmates and teachers immediately rushed to help but did not know how to respond.

The police said that he was rushed to a Primary Health Centre (PHC) but died of chocking, despite an attempt by doctors to remove the pen cap out of his throat.

A case has been registered under Section 174 of the Code Of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the local police said that an investigation was underway.

A pall of gloom descended on his family at his native village as visuals showed his parents clutching the boy’s body and uncontrollably weeping.

In a similar incident in November last year, a four-year-old boy choked to death on a rubber toy in Eluru in West Godavari district on Wednesday, after he mistook it for a snack.

The incident occurred in Kummari Revu Colony in the town, when Meesala Nireekshan Kumar's father, Lakshman Rao, bought him a snack packet.

The boy found a toy in the snack packet, and believing it also to be a snack, he swallowed it.

According to media reports from the time, he immediately choked and started having a seizure, and was rushed to the Government General Hospital in the town, where he was declared brought dead by doctors.